Analysis of the opening of Hot Fuzz

 

 

 

 

These are a few stills taken from the film Hot Fuzz. This is a film that I've chosen to analyse as part of my practice for my thriller opening. By looking at aspects such as how the character, plot and location are introduced it will help me to see what techniques are appropriate dependent on the genre of the film.

 

 

This part of the opening of Hot Fuzz tells us a lot about the character asides from his physical appearance and name, we can see that he is a police officer and so has some authority.

 
 These two images took from the opening of Hot Fuzz help us to know a bit more about the character besides the fact that he is a police officer. It does so at it shows us the different activities that he is involved in and so we get the impression that he is a man that does a lot (especially because the opening of this film is quite fast paced). The use of a fast paced opening helps the audience to get the know the character before the films storyline starts to unfold and so we get a sense that we know the person.

This photo is suggestive in telling us that the character is successful as he seems to be at a rewards ceremony. Furthermore, the use of proxemics is effective in telling us that he is important as he is stood in the middle of everyone.

This part of the opening gives us an idea of the genre of this film. It does so because there is a sense of black comedy in there as the man stabbing him is Santa. Furthermore, the music that is played is not serious and fitting to a serious situation which also gives us a sense of black or dark comedy as a theme in this film.

 This part of the opening shows that the character is successful in what he has done as it shows us a certificate from his policing job.

 

From this image, you are able to see that it is set in a large area (a city) as it is quite a spacious building. Also, if you look out of the building, you can almost get the impression that you are high up at this level in the building which also suggests that it is set in a city (with high buildings).

 

Furthermore, because this opening is quite bright and there is no dark lighting used, it tells us the genre of the film because the bright and natural light makes us think that it is not a dark and serious genre such as a horror but is a sort of comedy (the lighting is appropriate for the genre).